


Rafters

by Sambook009



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-14 21:16:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15397629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sambook009/pseuds/Sambook009
Summary: Steve was actually surprised how calmly Billy was taking the whole being trap in an empty mall in the middle of the night with no way out and the entire first floor filled with ravenous demodogs.





	Rafters

He remembered the first time he saw the creature from the Upside Down and how he started to panic and would have most likely died if Jonathan hadn’t yanked him into moving; he was just glad that he had convinced his coworker, Robin, to let him close the ice cream shop alone. 

Thankfully it was just Steve, Billy, and The Party, with the exception of Eleven who was with Hopper, in the whole Mall and the night time security guard hadn’t arrived yet. 

Earlier the kids had been watching a Midnight showing of Ghostbusters in the movie theater where Jonathan worked at and after the movie had ended the older Bryers had left to go home since Steve was going to drive the kids to his house for a sleepover.

He had gathered all of them in the back of Ahoy’s while he finishes cleaning the counters from crumbs and sticky melted ice cream when he heard the back door knocking. Steve went to open it wondering who would be knocking on the door of an empty mall at this hour? Behind the doorway stood Billy in his white t-shirt, jeans, and engineer boots and who was missing his usual cigarette.

“Nice shorts, Princess.”

Steve gapped, he hadn’t been face-to-face with the blonde since the night at the Byers, however, hearing the older boy’s comment snapped him out of his stupor. “What are you doing here?”

“Max needs to come home,” was the simple reply.

The redhead girl, who had been in earshot, started to reluctantly walk towards the door when they heard a familiar sound that made their blood run cold. 

They both look pass the blonde who had turn wondering what the wired noise was and saw the familiar outline of a demodog standing next to the blue Camaro and saw more walking from out of the woods. ‘This is impossible, I thought El close the gate?’ he then remembers. 

Starcourt Mall had been built in front of the forest was the Hawkins Lab was located. 

“What is that?” Billy wondered out loud and was about to take a step forward when he was grabbed by the arm and yanked hard into the closed mall.

After grabbing the older boy and pulling him inside, Steve slam the door shut and quickly locked it.

“What's wrong?” Dustin asks wondering why the older brunette looks so freaked out.

“Demodogs,” he said turning to look at them and seeing their shocked faces. “That’s impossible, El closed the gate,” Mike said before Steve could answer that he thought so too they heard a sound like a body hitting the floor. 

“Will? Will!” 

The kids started yelling and rushed over to their friend who had collapsed. Steve noticed that Will’s skin was red and when he went to touch his forehead he felt it burning up. He immediately got up and grab a washcloth which he soaks in cold water and places it on the unconscious boy’s forehead in an effort to bring down the fever that had suddenly appear. They didn’t understand how Will had gotten sick all of a sudden, the boy had been fine only a few minutes ago.

“We have to get out of here, we have to take Will to a hospital!”

“Harrington, what’s going on? What were those things?” Billy spoke for the first time since Steve pull him in with a surprisingly even tone like if he were asking who was winning a football game. 

“No time to explain. We have to get out of here,” Steve respond and gentle lay Will over his shoulder and started to move out of the ice cream parlor, Billy and the kids following him. 

They were moving across the food court they hear glass breaking and the building started to fill with the sound of demodogs.

“Run!” 

As more demodogs started pouring thru the broken mall doors, some of them went towards the food joints most likely attracted by the smell of cook meat from the Hot Dog On A Stick and Burger King as well as the other food joints, but a few ignore the scent in favor of a live meal.

Steve began frantically looking for a way out when he spotted the escalator which was working since the mall never turn it off. He yelled at the kids to start climbing the going down the staircase since it would make it harder for the creature to chase. 

Once they were all on, he started to follow them when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his leg where a demodog had clawed him causing him to fall forward. He felt somebody running down beside him and heard a loud smack and a thud.

“Come on, Harrington let's go!” Billy yelled at him as he drags Steve onto his feet who grab Will and started to run as fast as he could with his injured leg up the staircase. 

Finally, they reach the second floor as more demodogs made their way up the escalator. They ran toward the other side of the mall passing the different stores to get as far from the food court as possible.

When they reach the other side of the large mall they manage to barricade themselves in a shoe store that the owner hadn’t lock right. Once inside the store, Steve gentle place Will who was still burning up and hadn’t regained consciousness down on one of the cool leather benches and went and rip open a package of brand new gym socks and started to wrap them around his injured leg as a makeshift bandage. 

“How are we going to get out of here?” Lucas asks while looking around for a possible way out. They couldn’t exactly walk out the front doors through the food court since that was where most of the demodogs were located and there were no exits on the second floor.

Steve finish bandaging his leg and then walk toward the roll down security gate and look through the openings when he spotted a fire escape on the other side. “There,” he said while pointing at their way out. The kids crowded around him to see where he was aiming at.

“How are we going to get over there?” Mike asks out loud. 

Before Steve could respond, they heard the familiar snarling. They all immediately went to the back of the store as two demodogs appear and started scratching the security door in interest.

“Well that’s it, we’re dead,” Dustin said with an expression of defeated upon seeing their only possible way out taking from them. 

“No we’re not,” Max said pointing up, the others look up to see what she was pointing at and saw an air vent had been moved to reveal a hole big enough for them to crawl thru. They quickly move the bench that Dustin was sitting on under the hole as quietly as the could as to not attract any more unwanted attention.

Billy then climb thru to make sure that the coast was clear before helping the kids up being careful with Will before holding his arm out for Steve to grab who couldn’t help, but remember the last time Billy had offered to help him up only to shove him down after giving him the (he had to admit helpful) advice about planting his feet during their first basketball practice. 

The blonde grinned at the obvious hesitation, “Relax Princess, I’m not going to shove you again,” he said before pulling the other teen up. 

Now that they were all on the roof, they started to make their way towards the rafters, “Okay, we're going to have to cross the beam to get to the other side where the fire escape is,” Steve said while pointing towards the emergency exit.

“What about Will?” Mike asked while looking at his now deadly-pale friend who looks even weaker now. “I can carry him across,” Steve said also looking at the sickly boy.

“No,” Billy said firmly causing everyone to stare at him wide-eyed. 

Steve was shocked, he knew the guy was a jerk, but this was just low, “I am not leaving him!” he snapped and glare at the blonde, ready to fight the other teen again. 

At the sight of the angry brunette, Billy raised his hands in surrender, “Calm down Pretty Boy jeez, what I meant is that I’ll carry him, not you.”

As soon as the words left his mouth the members of The Party besides Max and Will started yelling and cursing in protest. 

“Everyone shut up!” Steve said in a loud whisper, hoping their loud outburst hadn’t attracted the demodogs’ attention before turning to look at Billy.

“Why can't I carry him?” he asked genuinely curious.

“If you carry the kid on that leg you’ll both end up falling before you even take the first three steps besides I think we already established that I’m much stronger than you are,” Billy said while crossing his arms over his chest and giving him a pointed look. 

Steve had to reluctantly agree, remembering the fight at the Byers’s house and how Billy had taking hit after hit and still beaten him, with a reluctant sigh he finally nodded and Billy nodded back.

After seeing the rafters up close, they realized they were going to have to walk across instead of crawl as Steve had hoped since the beam was less than a foot wide and he may not be an engineer, but he knew there was only so much weight it would take, so they would have to go two at a time. 

Taking a deep breath, Steve lowers his head to avoid hitting the roof and started to make his way across the narrow metal beam, placing one foot in front of the other. Dustin follows his lead and then Lucas and later Mike, who was obviously hesitant to leave Will in the care of Billy. 

By the time Mike reach the other side, Max was starting to cross. After the first couple of steps, she paused and gave her step-brother a glance before moving forward. 

After seeing that Max had gotten across safely, Billy knelt in front of Will and hoisted him up onto his back, he remembers doing this only once before when Max had fallen from her skateboard and scraped both her knees and couldn't walk from the pain so Billy had to carry her home. He couldn’t carry her in a fireman carry because of her bloody knees and Max had absolutely refused to be carried bridal-style and so he decides to give her a piggyback.

After making sure that the Byer’skid’s arms were firmly locked around his neck, Billy started to slowly walk across the metal bridge while ducking to avoid hitting either of their heads. He could hear Will’s labor breathing in his ear and even though their clothes he felt how hot the kid’s skin was and he knew that they had to get some help quick otherwise the kid was going to die from the fever alone.

With that in mind he continues his trek across the narrow beam, even from almost 20 feet in the air he could hear the creatures snarling below them. The teen was halfway across when he heard the strange growling behind him. 

“Billy!” Max yelled pointing at something behind him. He twisted his body to look only to see a demodog standing there with one clawed hand on the rafter snarling at him before it climbs fully on it. 

The rafter couldn't handle their combined weight and dislocated from the side the demodog was, the beam letting out a strong jolt causing all three of them to fall. 

Billy grabs the rafter with one arm and with the other grab Will who had fallen off from the sudden movement. He started pulling up the small kid with all his strength, his grip so tight that he worried that he might actually break the thin arm in his hand. 

When Will was level with his face, he then wrap his arms around his neck as best as he could with only one arm while eyeing the demodog which was also dangling from the metal beam, snarling and clawing while attempting to climb it, but it seems like its back legs were too short and gave up before turning its attention to the two humans and started moving towards them like some weird alien-flower-monkey hybrid. 

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to get away from it due to Will and his combine weight along with his inability to use his arms, the blonde opt for the next best thing and kick it, his boot-clad feet making impact with the monster’s chest. 

The demodog open it’s petal-shaped head and roar at them in anger while Billy swung his legs again, picturing his father with every hard kick while the creature started to try and claw at him with its feet. 

The whole situation probably look ridiculous if it weren’t for the fact that they could literally die at any second. The creature clawed at his legs and even cut through his jeans causing the teen to hiss in pain before he aims his next kick toward the creature’s shoulder joints in an attempt to make it let go of the beam. 

After another well-placed kick, the animal fell and landed with a loud thud on the mall floor and didn’t get up, the others that went towards it and appear to be smelling their fallen comrade. 

Billy was breathing hard and started to feel Will slipping, he moves to climb as fast as possible back onto the beam despite his arms screaming in pain from the extra movement. Somehow he manages to get them both back on without either of them falling and they finally reach the other side. Everyone crowded around them and began checking on Will who even though was still passed out, his fever had gone done a bit.

Steve opened the door and froze when he saw a bunch of demodogs in the parking lot which appears to be smelling the air, he could feel himself start to panic. They couldn’t go back and they couldn't go forward, they were stuck. 

All of a sudden the demodogs started running back into the woods the same way they did in the junkyard. Even the ones from inside the mall broke back out and also ran into the woods.

As soon as the ground was free from any remaining monsters they follow Billy back to the Camaro and got into the car with Steve in the passenger seat and the kids squeeze into the back.

“You still owe an explanation Harrington,” Billy said as the engine roar to life. 

“I will, but first let's get Will to a doctor,” he said, grateful that they had made it out of there alive and also maybe for now having an excuse to burn the stupid shorts he was wearing that was torn and no amount of detergent was going to remove the bloodstain on it.


End file.
